


Leave before the lights come on

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: 5 Times, Angst, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Light Smut, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-21
Updated: 2013-02-21
Packaged: 2017-12-03 04:05:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/693906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Aka, the five times Josh woke up in Niall Horan's bed</p>
            </blockquote>





	Leave before the lights come on

**Author's Note:**

> This is utterly self indulgent, especially the Arctic Monkey's song title. Go look up the song though. Seriously. It's really good.

The first time Josh wakes up in Niall’s bed, he honestly has no idea how he got there.

He’s naked, which is rather alarming, so his brain automatically jumps to the obvious conclusion, however when Niall walks into the room he’s fully clothed, although he looks as hung-over as Josh feels. When Josh asks awkwardly whether he can remember the events of the night before any more clearly than he can, Niall shakes his head and insists that he’s also forgotten everything, before politely suggesting that they go their separate ways for the rest of the day.

Josh doesn’t think he’s ever agreed to anything so quickly before in his life.

But just as he’s about to exit the hotel room that Niall (and, apparently he himself) have been given while they’re in this city, the younger boy calls him back with a short question that carries a much heavier weight than any 6 words should be allowed to carry.

“D-do you not remember anything then?”

There’s awkward silence for a moment as Josh tries to dredge up any memories at all of how he managed to find himself collapsed in his friend’s bed, but he’s already said ‘no’ before he can begin to wonder why Niall wants to know. His answer seems to satisfy Niall, though, who smiles in relief and shows him to the door.

Later on, Josh asks his friends if their recollections of last night are any better, but it seems they were all either too paraplegic drunk to have formed clear memories, or claim to have seen him dancing with some girl one minute before he disappeared the next. It’s all rather too confusing for Josh considering he’s still recovering from one hell of a hang-over, so rather than pondering the issue for any longer he goes home and drinks masses of coffee and watches crap telly with the sound turned down low, and somewhere in the back of his mind he hopes that his memory will begin to reassemble itself as they day goes on so that he can fit the puzzle pieces of the night before together.

But it doesn’t and he can’t.

That night Niall goes out again (his bandmates often wonder how he manages it before deciding it must be something to do with his Irish blood) while Josh stays in for reasons he’s not even sure of himself. Even once he’s got to bed it takes a long time for him to fall asleep, and when he wakes up in the middle of the night from a dream that he promptly forgets, the sheets next to him are cold and empty.

***

The second time it happens, Josh’s memories are hazy once again, but this time he’s got a fair idea of how he ended up there after a few drinks too many.

However when Niall walks into the room he insists on drawing a blank on the whole evening and looks so determinedly innocent that Josh starts to wonder if maybe he’s imagining things after all.

Maybe it was just an unusually vivid dream – it wouldn’t be the first time that he’s had sexually explicit dreams about the younger man! So he ignores the gnawing unease in his stomach and makes small talk with Niall and tries to forget it all by dismissing it as an impossibility. Because there’s no way that his straight friend member would ever even consider him as a potential sex partner, let alone actually make a move on him to the point where they ended up sleeping together, right?

This time it’s Josh who makes the first excuse about having to leave, and it’s Josh who stops in the doorway to make a comment before he exits.

“It’s the second time this has happened now, isn’t it?”

It’s easier to make it a question, but Niall’s eyes still narrow at the fact he will have to reply.

“Yeah,” a moment of measured silence passes by before he continues. “What of it?”

And Josh wants to say something, he really does, he wants to tell Niall that he’s pretty sure he remembers what happened and that he just wants to talk about it and that it’s nothing to be ashamed about and they don’t have to do it again…

He wants to, but he doesn’t. Instead he shrugs and leaves swiftly without even a goodbye.

Later on, Josh summons up enough courage to pull Harry aside during sound check for a quick word. When the othr boy smiles at him curiously, he plans out his next sentence carefully in his head so that he can’t chicken out, but that all goes to pot the moment he opens his mouth.

He ends up babbling something about Niall being confused and not being able to remember anything and how he’s not sure whether he’s right or not, before sighing and telling Harry to forget about it. Harry, being the wonderfully caring person he is, still seems concerned and asks whether he wants him to talk to Niall about everything, or get one of the other boys to do it.

Josh doesn’t think he’s ever shaken his head more vigorously in his life.

That night he lies wide awake in his bed trying to persuade himself that he imagined the whole thing, although his fuzzy memories tell a different story. When he falls asleep he dreams about Niall and wakes up in a rather compromising position as a result, but of course it doesn’t matter because there’s no one there to see him.

***

The third time, he remembers everything.

He remembers pretending to get wasted with Niall while actually remaining sober in order to carry out the plan he’s been formulating in his mind for a while now. He remembers the taxi ride home and how Niall was almost falling asleep in the back, yet still managed to pin him up against the wall when they were inside and snog his face off. He remembers Niall’s face as he came: his blissful smile surrounded by his mussed blonde hair making him appear almost angelic in the moonlight that was streaming through the window.

He remembers everything and, having carefully watched his friend’s alcohol intake the night before, he’s pretty sure Niall will too.

However when Niall walks into the room his face is like impassive thunder and Josh knows all too well that if he tries to bring up the subject he will be shot down instantly. Instead he lets Niall mutter something about this becoming a regular occurrence and how _this isn’t a hotel, you know_ (which should be funny because it is, but isn’t because Josh is heartbroken) and then leaves as quickly as possible with one final caustic remark behind him.

“We really ought to stop doing this, Niall, or people might think we’re sleeping together!”

It’s a bit of a low blow, but he no longer has the capacity to care, so he enjoys the feeling on Niall’s shocked stare boring into his back as he exits through the door.

Later on, Josh goes and gets drunk way too early in those dodgy places that start selling alcohol at 10 in the morning, because he wants to drink so much that he honestly does forget everything: Niall, the sex, the way he was so carelessly pushed aside like a piece of rubbish.

e slugs down beer until his vision goes blurry and he gets kicked out of the pub for starting a fight with someone for no other reason but pure boredom, yet he still can’t shift the image of Niall from behind his eyes. Every time he blinks he can see the younger boy’s face as Josh thrust into him, and the blank expression he used to break his heart this morning. There are guys and girls who he tries to chat up in the hope of a rebound shag, but none of them want to know, which he supposes is unsurprising considering his sullen, inebriated state.

That night he definitely doesn’t throw up on the doorstep and collapse in the hallway, sobbing, while the rain pours down outside in the most pathetic of pathetic fallacy. And he absolutely doesn’t wake up on the sofa, having been unable to face his empty bed once again

***

The fourth time (and really, considering Niall is supposed to be straight, this is getting a bit ridiculous now), Josh wakes up to find his friend in the bed with him.

Niall is turned on his side with his back to Josh, but he can still hear his sobs in the early-morning stillness of the room. He remembers the sex and he swears they’re getting better every time they do it, but that doesn’t matter right now because _Niall_ , the indestructible ball of Irish energy, is crying, and Josh is the only one there to help.

Niall stiffens when he feels Josh’s hand reach out and rest comfortingly on his shoulder, however then he relaxes into the touch as the muscles in his back become less tense and he eventually stops crying in order to roll onto his back and stare up at the ceiling.

“Why are you crying?” whispers Josh, too loud in the near-silent room, then regrets it when he sees Niall bite his lip and begin to tear up again as he replies.

“Because I’m here. With you. And I shouldn’t be.”

Josh’s heart sinks, and he knows it’s selfish because of course Niall was always going to have issues with sleeping and then waking up with another boy, but the fact is that he’s enduring pain as a result of it too. Without a word he retracts his hand and clenches the other into a fist, trying as hard as he can not to kick something because _why does it always happen like this_?

“I suppose I should fix that then,” he mutters under his breath although he knows Niall can hear it anyway, and without another word he gets out of bed, picks up the clothes he left neatly folded in a pile on the chair, and leaves.

Later on, they argue properly at Josh’s flat and he’s able to say everything that’s been building up inside him over the past few months since they first slept together

There are tears at points, but there’s more red-hot anger than anything else and it’s strange because he always sort of presumed that Niall was the sort of guy who didn’t have it in him to fight with anyone. Maybe he’s the exception that proves the rule, since by the end of their heated exchange Niall is falling to pieces as he slams the door behind him and leaves the apartment in a flurry, and Josh can’t say that getting everything out there has made it any better for him either.

That night Josh forces himself to ring Niall and apologises even when the younger man insists that he doesn’t deserve it. After they’ve talked for hours and, ok, cried a bit, Niall refuses to hang up until Josh falls asleep and for some reason that makes the space next to him in the bed feel slightly less empty.

***

The fifth time Josh wakes up in Niall’s bed, the younger man is collapsed across his chest with his arms wrapped around his waist and his blonde hair tickling his face.

The midday sun is streaming through the curtains, illuminating them both, and Josh doesn’t think he’s ever seen anything more beautiful than Niall sleeping with a small smile on his face from whatever it is he’s dreaming about. He wants the moment to last forever so that he can spend an eternity with Niall in his arms, but then the urge to yawn becomes too much and he’s forced to move.

His warm breath and contracting chest muscles must have woken Niall, because just then he cracks one eye open to observe his surroundings. The other eye quickly follows suit when he takes in the sight of Josh’s face in front of his own, along with a sleepy grin that stretches lazily across his cheeks as he nuzzles his nose into his boyfriend’s neck.

“Morning babe,” murmurs Josh, still almost unable to believe that he’s able to address Niall as such, prompting the younger boy to place a kiss on his collar bone before snuggling back down into his muscular chest.

“Morning Joshy.”

Josh doesn't think that he’s ever been happier than he is right now.

Later on, they go to the cinema together and Niall eats way too much ice cream and Josh comforts him when the film gets too scary, and for a while they can almost imagine that they’re just an ordinary couple on a date. That is, until they leave the building and are bombarded by screaming fangirls.

Josh stands back and lets Niall give hugs and pose for pictures, but occasionally the fans want to speak with him too and he’s fine with that. One girl keeps looking back and forth between the two of them and when she eventually squeals that she ships Nosh they laugh and look at each other with knowing smiles.

Eventually they’re able to leave and the moment they’re out of sight of the fans Niall grabs Josh’s hand in his own. Josh looks at him in surprise, but Niall is staring straight ahead determinedly with an unusually shy smile on his face.

That night Josh tells Niall that he loves him for the first time, and Niall cries and says it too. They go to bed with limbs wrapped tight around each other’s bodies, and for once Josh knows for certain who he will wake up with in the morning.


End file.
